Beer Guy: YEG’s new brewery district Happy Beer Street

by Peter Bailey

Well I’m a happy boy (happy boy) Oh ain’t it good when things are going your way, hey hey.

So sang Country Dick Montana, drummer and sometime vocalist of The Beat Farmers, on Happy Boy back in 1985. That year I was very much a happy boy. It was my final year at U of A and it felt like a victory lap. I lived in a house by campus with friends where we had a pop machine in the basement filled with beer that cost 75¢ a bottle. I watched the Oilers win their second Stanley Cup, in person. I saw my favourite band R.E.M. at SUB (now Horowitz) Theatre. Best of all, I got a great summer job at the Ukrainian Village and, on the first day of work, I found the love of my life.

We’re still married today. One of our first dates was dinner at Walden’s, then the best restaurant in town, where our server was none other than the future publisher of The Tomato. On another early date I borrowed my parent’s car and we drove to what felt like hell and gone to Goose Loonies nightclub. I bet I drank a Heineken and danced to You Spin Me Round (Like a Record). Today Goose Loonies is the Union Hall and its location at 99 Street and 63 Avenue doesn’t seem all that far away at all.

In 1995 Neil Herbst founded Alley Kat Brewing in an industrial strip about a block south of Union Hall. A year after that Mary Bailey launched Edmonton’s food and beverage magazine, City Palate, now The Tomato. Both ventures have weathered the crests and troughs over the last quarter century and, importantly, have been unwavering in their support of local food and drink. Love of local was not always a thing. Neil Herbst said, when Alley Kat was starting out, that “he discovered that Edmontonians thought beer made in Edmonton was bad.” Beer by beer, year by year, Herbst kept educating Edmontonians about the glories of local beer until he sold Alley Kat in 2020.

What a difference 25 years makes. Today people love local beer. Alley Kat has been joined by breweries along 99 Street, including Sea Change, Omen, Longroof, Blind Enthusiasm, The Monolith and (soon) Bent Stick. This co-location was happenstance rather than planned, but still, the co-location idea is very craft beer, which is all about community and collaboration. The breweries of 99 Street now take it a bit further, formalizing their collaboration in the Happy Beer Street initiative to promote 99 Street as a brewery district. (Think Calgary’s Barley Belt or Portland’s Pearl District.)

I asked the new kids on the block, Longroof Brewing, about Happy Beer Street. Co-founder and Head Brewer Troy Wassill said they located on 99 Street, hidden behind Barb & Ernie’s Old Country Inn restaurant, kind of on a whim. They fell in love with the possibilities of the big, open industrial space; “we always brewed together in a garage, so a bigger garage was the next logical step.” He noted that “all of our brewery neighbours were really just a great bonus.” They love the Happy Beer Street initiative: “It is one step beyond the already amazing brew community that Edmonton already is. The opportunity to work with and learn from some of the best minds in the business is a dream come true for a new brewery like us.” When I asked Wassill for Longroof’s goal, he said, “Genuine smiles, from us and the whole Longroof family.” Sounds like Longroof will fit in quite well on Happy Beer Street.

For more info and a map, visit happybeerstreet.com.

Happy Beer Street Six Pack

Try these Happy Beer Street beers by touring through the tap rooms. You could do it on your bike or walk—it’s about two kilometres from Bent Stick just south of Whyte Avenue to Alley Kat on 60 Avenue. Or find these great beers at better beer shops like Sherbrooke Liquor, Keg n Cork or Color de Vino.

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Bent Stick Encino Man West Coast IPA Bent Stick are the pride of the north side, but co-founder Ben Rix notes that they’d long outgrown their little industrial bay on Fort Road. This fall they will reopen on Happy Beer Street. Encino Man is Bent Stick’s homage to the classic west coast IPAs of yesteryear but with more balance than those big hop bombs. Simcoe and Centennial hops are used for a nice citrus zest.

Blind Enthusiasm ZestyZee Blind Enthusiasm owner Greg Zeschuk really changed the beer game in Edmonton when he opened the Biera restaurant and Blind Enthusiasm brewery complex in Ritchie, not far off 99 Street. This stylish venture can stand with beer temples anywhere. And the beer is great. ZestyZee is a light, crisp, summer wheat beer with banana and spice notes and a gentle tartness.

Happy Beer Street Mega Collab Sour Time Dry Hopped Sour Longroof’s Troy Wassill calls this sour “a beauty brewed in the waning days of the lockdown.” The brew teams from all seven Happy Beer Street breweries got together virtually through Slack and Zoom to collaborate on this sour. It’s a tasty and refreshing beer that is guava forward, with orange and herbal notes on the nose with flavours of stone fruit.

Omen Spilt Milk This delicious and sweet milk stout is a perfect beer to transition from summer to fall. Omen Brewing are dark beer specialists, so know how to make a great stout. Omen’s Andrew Oswald says, “with notes of coffee and chocolate, this one drinks like an espresso with a shot of cream.” Balanced well between roasted malt and sweetness.

Sea Change Knuckle West Coast IPA Sea Change’s take on west coast American IPA is approachable and balanced, featuring Simcoe and Citra hops, with Alberta pale ale, British Maris Otter and German Spelt malts. Very drinkable, with modest bitterness and notes of citrus, pine, and tropical fruit.

Alley Kat Scona Gold One of Alley Kat’s core beers, Scona Gold was originally brewed as a cream ale, with Alley Kat re-introducing it in 2014 as a Kölsch-style ale. A crisp and refreshing golden ale with subtle malt and fruit notes. It was Beer of the Year at the 2015 Canadian Brewing Awards.